


Tangled Up in You

by frek, sova



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Art, Christmas, Established Relationship, Humor, Illustrated, M/M, sterek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2018-03-03 05:53:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2840402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frek/pseuds/frek, https://archiveofourown.org/users/sova/pseuds/sova
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How do Christmas lights always manage to get so tangled anyway?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tangled Up in You

**Author's Note:**

> This fic and art were created for [12 Days of Sterek](http://12daysofsterek.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr. The fic is written by Frek and the art is done by Sova. :)

Stiles should have known better than to try to untangle the Christmas lights on his own. He really should have. Every other year before he'd had the help of someone else to get it done, his father or Scott, or even Derek helped last year. Somehow it always ended up being a two person job at minimum. But Derek wanted to get the tree and Stiles wanted the decorations to be ready when he came back from the preserve. And well. Things quickly escalated beyond tangled.

Way beyond tangled. 

See, when Stiles opened the bin that he had packed the lights in neatly the year before, what he found wasn't the nice little bundles of individual strands that he recalled putting away. No, those were apparently just a memory. In their place was an actual conglomerate of every strand of lights that Stiles owned, tangled, twisted, and wrapped together in a way that would frighten even the most jaded puzzle solver. 

Stiles was no such person, but he didn't let that deter him. He figured he had a couple hours until Derek would be back and he was determined to get this done. Surely that was all he needed to get them apart? So Stiles set to work, pulling the giant, tangled mess of lights out of the bin and setting them on the floor. He walked around the mass, sizing it up, trying to sort out where to start, if an end was visible or if he'd have to take a shot at a bit from the middle.

There was no end free for him to start with. Of course not. Stiles sighed and started tugging on a strand at random, pulling it as free as he could, getting a few inches length before the lights got hung up on one of the tangles in the ball. He made a noise of frustration before sitting down on the floor by the lights. This was going to take a while.

A long while, Stiles realized an hour and half later. He'd been working non stop since he'd pulled the ball of lights from the bin and all he had to show for it was a few random tangled strands wrapped around himself and looped out of the ball here and there. Most of the ends were still somewhere in the middle of the mass and he was starting to wonder if he ought to consider giving up and just buying all new lights this year.

Except, Stiles reasoned with himself, that would be way too costly for the amount of distance Stiles wanted to cover with lights. He had big plans for Derek's new house and he wasn't going to give in so easily. Especially when he just _knew_ he was seconds away from a breakthrough. 

Well, a few seconds and then some... Minutes. Okay, so it was another twenty minutes before Stiles had finally freed an actual honest to god plug out of the pile. And as luck would have it, he learned when he plugged it into the wall, it went to the lights he had mostly wrapped around himself. Stiles wanted to jump and dance in celebration. Only those lights wrapped around him weren't quite loose. No, they were definitely tangled. In fact, they were tangled pretty tightly around him. Damn.

Stiles let out a long breath, eyes following the trail of the shining lights from his body to the mass of lights where they were still woven through. At this rate he would be lucky to have even this strand free when Derek got back.

And luck was not on his side. As Stiles was trying to wiggle free from a particularly recalcitrant loop, he heard Derek coming through the front door, calling out to him.

"In here!" Stiles called, wiggling his foot free from his shoe so he could maybe pull his socked foot through the loop.

Stiles glanced up just in time to see Derek's expression as he caught sight of his current predicament. He really didn't expect any pity or concern, but he thought Derek would have more tact than to start laughing right away. And not just any laugh. Derek went from straight faced to grasping his side in three point five seconds flat, one hand swiping at the tears in the corners of his eyes as he leaned against the doorframe for support. 

"Go on, get your laugh in," Stiles murmured, only the barest hint of bitterness in his voice. He couldn't really fault Derek for his reaction. He knew that if he were in Derek's position, he'd be doing the same thing. "Let's all laugh at Stiles, the human Christmas tree."

Derek shook his head as the laughter started to die down, stepping up to Stiles to sort out how he could help. "I don't know whether to try and help you or sing Oh Christmas Tree."

"Ha ha," Stiles said humorlessly, wiggling his foot free of another loop while Derek circled him, gaze calculating.

Derek walked around Stiles another time and Stiles huffed out, frustrated. "Oh my god, just untangle me already, please!"

"Maybe I should leave you like this. Have you stand in the window until Christmas Day."

"Derek!" Stiles whined, attempting to step over toward Derek. The only forward movement he managed, though, was to stumble into Derek's arms.

Derek caught him easily enough and leaned in to press a soft kiss to Stiles' lips before he started to pull at the lights, throwing strands over his shoulders and to the floor until they were loose enough that both of them could step out of them if they chose.

They didn't, though. Not at first, anyway. "My hero," Stiles whispered, a smile playing on his lips as he slid his arms around Derek's neck, pulling him in.

"Thank god I got here in time to save you from those vicious Christmas lights," Derek teased, holding Stiles close, reveling in the simple joy of the moment.

"I could have been eaten alive, you know."

Derek hummed his agreement as he leaned in, brushing their noses together. "You never know, you still might be."

**Author's Note:**

> You can find us both on tumblr, [@frek](http://frek.tumblr.com) and [@geeky-sova](http://geeky-sova.tumblr.com).


End file.
